What’s A Geek at ToyCon 2018: It’s A Whole New Playground

Toy and pop culture enthusiasts who attended ToyCon 2018 are actually attending the 17th (!) year of the convention. Long-time fans of ToyCon will recognize how the event transformed people from your typical con-goers to a community of toy and pop culture aficionados! As a treat for fans, this year’s ToyCon organizers brought in big name artists, actors, writers, and other pop culture icons to the Philippines! All of these for the toy community to enjoy!

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Cholo Mallillin, one of ToyCon’s top organizers, shared that Filipinos celebrate everything different. This also extends to our celebration of fandoms as well. As with any event, there will be highlights, fun stuff and room for improvement. Scroll down and read how we enjoyed ToyCon2018!

ToyCon 2018: Highlights

This year’s ToyCon 2018 brought in giant names like Neal Adams, Dante Basco, Kelly Hu, Kevin Grevioux, and Michael Copon. Fans had the opportunity to get a picture and an autograph with these celebrities. There were also interview panels where media people and con-goers could learn more about these big names!

Dante and Michael, both with Filipino blood in them, talked a lot about their struggles in the industry because of their ethnic background. Kelly talked a lot about the need for Asian male leads and the need for respect in the industry. Kevin Grevioux and Neal Adams (who are apparently brothers and are in a soprano duet) told stories about how they started in the industry. On the whole, the guests were nice and accommodating and would even quip with you when you get to talk to them during the autograph session.

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Poplife, a ToyCon partner, brought in musical guests: KissBee, Nana Yamada, and Hyolyn! Each night had a concert at the sound stage where fans got to go wild! I especially enjoyed the Hyolyn stage where apl.de.ap, Janice Javier, and Slapshock opened for her. It was a super fun stage with the whole crowd singing along and dancing to the summer sounds Hyolyn brought with her.

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Another highlight of ToyCon 2018 is the toys! (lol) There were a lot of ToyCon exclusives like the TEQ63 Manila Killa Colorway, the special LEGO ToyCon PH mini-fig, the new Trese and Kambal figures, and many more! I’m happy to say that all these special toys got sold out during the first few hours of the convention! The artists and designers had to take in pre-orders to keep up with the demand!

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ToyCon2018: Fun Stuff

This year had a almost a hundred toy stalls, ranging from designer art toys, to anime trinkets. Personally, this is my favorite part of ToyCon 2018 and the most dangerous to my wallet.

Hundreds of familiar faces can be seen as you walk through the stores and tons of toys to sift through! ToyCon 2018 had the staples in the toy community making appearances: BigBoys Toy Store, the Gaming Library, GoodSmile among others. This con also had ALL of the Shoppesville Greenhills stores coming through, which made this ToyCon feel just like home. We were also blessed by many different art toy designers from all around Asia coming and showing off their stuff: Quiccs, Wetworks and Ano Toys. All in all, the selection of toys and stores this con was great and had a little bit of something for all kinds of collectors.

ToyCon 2018: Room for Improvement

While ToyCon 2018 was a great convention, there is a lot of room for improvement. First off, the convention flow would be better if there were schedules available to everyone and not just announced over the speakers.

It might also be a good idea to produce a ToyCon Map with a program flow that people can get with their tickets, just so people have an idea of how the days would turn out. Official pages could also show the schedule so people can get a quick look at it on their phones.

Another thing that ToyCon could improve on is the release of information on artists coming; it would be great to give out information on how much tickets to autographs are months before. Especially, since many people save up thousands of pesos just to get to meet them. I know many of these aren’t ToyCon’s fault especially since the artists have their own schedules to prepare but setting expectations for these kinds of event would help any of the newer con-goers.

ToyCon 2018 was a great three-day weekend, and here’s us hoping for the next one!

What did you guys like about ToyCon 2018? Show us your hauls and pics down at the comments! You can also spazz with us on Twitter and Instagram!